The President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr. Joseph Kweku Adjei, has blamed the shortage of teachers in the country on the refusal of the government to post teachers who have completed various university courses back to the classroom.

He noted that the endemic shortage of professional teachers was a serious problem which continued to affect the educational system, as 567 professional graduate teachers who submitted their posting forms to the Ghana Education Service (GES), were denied the chance to teach. This was contained in a speech read on his behalf by the General Secretary of the Association, Mrs. Irene Duncan Adanusah, at the 3rd Quadrennial Volta Region Delegates Conference of GNAT, held in Ho.

The conference was under the theme: “Achieving Quality Public Education by 2015- The Role of Stakeholders.” Kweku Adjei expressed regret that these frustrated professional teachers were now resting in their homes while their services were mostly needed in schools, and called on government to, as a matter of urgency, review whatever policy that necessitated such actions, to help address the problem of teacher shortage in schools.

The GNAT President noted that the subject areas that lacked teachers most were English Language, sciences and technical subjects, and urged the government to address the situation by creating opportunities for teachers in such specialised areas in order to fill the vacancies.

Mr. Adjei also touched on the continuous political interference in matters of education, which he noted, was negatively affecting quality education in the country, adding that the association would resist attempts by any political office holder to circumvent good educational policies for their political gains.

The GNAT President said the GES had a process of recruiting, posting and transferring teachers, and any external interference in the processes would undermine the laid down structures of the educational sector. The immediate past General Secretary of GNAT, Mr. Paul Osei Mensah, called on the government to allow the values placed on education reflect positively in the lives of teachers who were at the centre of educational activities.

He stressed the need for government to ensure attractive salary structures, incentive schemes, and adopt strategies that would help address other social problems that confront teachers in the performance of their duties. Mr. Mensah urged the government to make teaching more attractive, to enable more people to take it up as a profession, rather than a stepping stone to other lucrative job areas, a situation he noted, continued to have negative effects on education in the country.

He therefore proposed the establishment of a performance related pay system for teachers, when the necessary incentive packages are put in place to ensure that they deliver. The Volta Regional Minster, Mr. Joseph Amenowode, in a speech read for him, said the government had identified school drop-outs, poor transition from Primary to Junior High School, poor school infrastructure, and lack of teachers as critical factors that continued to militate against education in the country. He noted that the government was putting in place mechanisms that would help address these concerns. Mr. Amenowode said the Capitation Grant had been increased by fifty percent, and school feeding grants for Senior High Schools also increased by fifty percent.